Military spokesman counters U.S. claim that Russian aircraft were responsible for the strike

MOSCOW—Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday an armed drone belonging to the U.S.-led coalition was in the vicinity of a humanitarian aid convoy that was hit by an airstrike Monday in Syria, countering an assertion by American intelligence agencies that Russian aircraft conducted the strike.

In a televised briefing, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, reasserted that Russia wasn’t responsible for the strike—and indirectly suggested that a pilotless coalition aircraft may have been involved in the incident.

Gen. Konashenkov said a drone had been observed “in the exact place” where the strike occurred, at an altitude of 11,800 feet. The aircraft, he added, was launched from Incirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey.

“Only its owners can answer the question of what this drone was doing at that exact place and in that specific time, and what instructions it had carried out,” Gen. Konashenkov said.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said there were no American or coalition aircraft, armed or unarmed, in the convoy’s vicinity at the time of the attack.

It looks like a "hell cannon" strike to me, the improvised, used 20lb propane canister mortars the jihadi's use.

One was in the truck using the convoy as cover.

The propane canister's are filled with homemade amatol explodives and use any impact dentonator they can get, often RPG's with defective ricket motors.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8EaPr6C0I

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MLRTsp1O5WU

They are basically a short range, not that accurate 335.4 mm mortar, with a large blast burn and concussive effect, with very little shrapnel. If the amatol mix is diesel rich, then there is more burn than blast.

I agree. The vehicles would've been little more than burnt grease spots. We would have seen the cratering and blackened ground so common in other post-strike photos.

e.g.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5xHJ8MZi4bc/hqdefault.jpg

https://goo.gl/images/uGKudj

https://goo.gl/images/nropdI

The damage we see in the Aleppo photos isn't consistent with what we've seen in the past.

This whole thing stinks of a fix 'em up between Washington and their proxies. The SAA, let alone the Russians had nothing to gain, thus no motive for striking this convoy. The U.S. and friends, on the other hand, had everything to gain in a frame up.

I have a Russian source who told me the following this evening ... and mind you this is a Russian government source. The Pentagon and the U.S. intel community made it very clear that they did not want to cooperate with Russia on Syria when the truce was agreed upon last week. You had an air strike on a Syrian military position that killed 80 Syrian soldiers .... a guarantee if there ever was one to scuttle the truce .... but it did not work. Russia and Syria still wanted to proceed .... and to put the air strike behind them. Two days later we have a strike on an aid convoy .... a military strike that would have brought nothing to either Russia or Syria .... but a sure guarantee for those who do not want this truce to continue that the truce would collapse .... which it did. This blog has been reporting and chronicling wars and conflicts for years .... and while I do not have any direct intel or source of information on what has happened in the past few days in Syria ... I do have my instincts .... and my instincts tell me that this whole thing stinks to high heaven.

So the Russians point out in their aerial film of the convoy, the presence of a mobile mortar. Initially they seemed to use that as cover or a reason to treat the convoy as an aid/ militants resupply mix. So why would they not decide to strike. Seems logical in the twisted logic of war to hit the enemy and also pay back the us for their misfire on Syrian troops.

Does it really matter any longer who does what in Syria? The US induced power vacuum has created more sides and factions killing and destroying than any conflict in recent history. Moderates? Old joke about moderates in the middle east. They are the factions who ran out of ammo.

The fact is they all lie and it is the citizenry who are kept in the dark by design.

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I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.